The sport of running has become increasingly popular. The number of finishers of marathons and half-marathons has more than doubled over the past ten years. As it has become increasingly clear that a runner's technique or form can affect performance and contribute to or prevent injury, gait analysis has increasingly become an area of interest.
Traditionally, gait analysis has been limited merely to determining whether a runner under-pronates or over-pronates, and selecting the appropriate shoes to compensate therefor. However, as scientific studies of techniques practiced by competitive runners have become more widely known, the importance of factors such as stride rate, contact time, and bounce has become clear. Accordingly, it has become increasingly desirable for runners to be able to obtain such information in real time from real runs on courses that the runners traverse every day.
Sensor devices have been specifically designed to gain informative metrics about biological motion, particularly bipedal motion (walking or running). Devices for obtaining these metrics have included both Global Positioning System (GPS) and motion sensors. However, these are typically specialized devices, often using either GPS or motion, but not both. Furthermore, the specialized nature of these devices require a high amount of engineering development to employ sensitive detectors, which requires a high amount of power consumption, and yet still maintain a low weight for the overall product, enough to be practical or unobtrusive while running.